What's at stake in 2014 is the fight for your most basic freedoms: the freedom to live your life the way you want to. Freedom from government interference, freedom from oppression by regulation or confiscation of your wealth. Freedom from tyranny. #gotliberty

What was truly noteworthy about this debate was the respect all columnists gave each other despite the passions unleashed by the nature of the argument. It should stand as an example for all conservatives to follow when debating issues among ourselves.

The poll from the Democratic firm found that Bush is the state’s pick to run against Clinton. In a Bush-Clinton matchup, Bush wins 47 percent to 39 percent. Paul, Christie and Huckabee would also beat Clinton. "Palin does worse in her home state than any of the other potential Republican candidates we tested," said PPP.

“All of the incursions into my affairs began after filing applications for tax-exemption. There is no other remarkable event. There is no other reason, to explain how for decades I went unnoticed but now find myself on the receiving end of interagency coordination into and against all facets of my life both personal and private.” Engelbrecht told the committee that all of the inquiries were occurring at the same time the IRS sought “every Facebook and Twitter I’d ever posted, questions about my political aspirations, and demands to know the names of groups that I’d spoken with, the content of what I had said and everywhere that I intended to speak in the coming year.”

Engelbrecht noted that while the answers to these inquiries were of no interest to the average IRS agent, they “are certainly of interest to a political machine that will put its own survival against the civil liberties of a private citizen.”

Watch Engelbrecht’s entire opening statement here, keeping in mind that President Obama told Bill O’Reilly that there is “not a smidgen of corruption” in the IRS abuse scandal.

The conservative Club For Growth called the legislation, which took members of Congress three years to write, 'a "Christmas Tree" bill where there’s a gift for practically every special interest group out there with a well-connected lobbyist.'

It's $956 billion of spending overall in a ten-year period, sketched out in legislation 959 pages long – nearly $1 billion per page.

But most of that money goes to food-stamp and nutrition programs, which are administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The 10-year spending total for those entitlements will hit $756 billion under the new law.

The media is constantly bemoaning the lack of bipartisanship in Congress, with the lion’s share of their scorn directed at conservatives for being too “intransigent.” Well, almost the entire Senate GOP Conference – both moderate and conservative members – actually united behind a Democrat-sponsored bill to implement sanctions on Iran. Yet, the Democrats and their allies are spoiling this superlative opportunity to work together on a goal that is supposedly shared by both parties.

Last November, President Obama forged a deal with Iran that should be called the “if you like your nukes you can keep them” deal. As part of the Geneva agreement, Iran is not required to destroy a single centrifuge it has already produced, but is required to end any future development of nuclear operations. Even with the future promises to curtail their nuclear program, the Iranians probably have enough material already to create a bomb....

In return for their trustworthy promises to reduce their nuclear program, Obama agreed to suspend sanctions against them for six months. But fear not, if they don’t uphold their side of the deal, Russia and China, which have permanent veto power over any sanctions, have agreed to re-impose the international sanctions on a rogue Iran.

In response to this outrage, a group of senators from both parties introduced a bill to re-impose sanctions on Iran (S.1881). The bill was sponsored by Democrat Senator Robert Menendez. Almost every Republican along with 16 Democrats co-sponsored the bill. What a great opportunity to bring a bipartisan bill to the floor, no?

As we all know, the Democrats had no intention of ever holding a vote on the bill. They just wanted to show their constituents that they are just as strong on national security as Republicans, but never wanted to bring the bill to the floor, lest they embarrass the messiah and leader of their party.

A bombshell Congressional Budget report released this week indicated that the Affordable Care Act Obamacare will result in the equivalent of 2.5 million workers voluntarily leaving the workforce by 2024, all taking their productivity with them. The report is politically devastating for ACA Obamacare supporters, and they know it. Their flailing reaction to that report speaks to the adverse impact it could have on Democrats’ political position ahead of the 2014 midterms.

The last 48 hours have produced some of the finest, most rarified examples of spin the political universe has been privy to in some time. It’s been a veritable windfall for consumers of political discourse who enjoy observing painful rhetorical contortions.

Then you have Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), who appeared virtually incoherent Thursday on MSNBC while trying to explain away “pathetic” Republicans accurately quoting the CBO.

“You could say people don’t want a promotion, because if they make more money they’ll have to pay more taxes,” Moore said in false equivalence. This makes sense only to those who do not currently pay income taxes on their wages – which may, in fact, be her intended audience.

◼ Alfonzo Rachel: I don’t agree with Obama and Democrats. But I don’t agree with the energy Conservatives put into shaking their fists at politicians, while thinking it’s going to take another politician to solve the problem. Conservatives aren’t doing the cultural work to gain and maintain representation.

If they would put more effort into supporting the creativity of artists to illustrate and promote Conservatism, instead of always thinking the answer is going to be a politician, they would see more positive effects.

“Charles Krauthammer made the bold proclamation on Wednesday that the comments White House press secretary Jay Carney made in response to the recently-released CBO report on Obamacare will be ‘emblazoned on the tombstone of liberalism,’” Jason Howerton writes at The Blaze:

Here’s the statement made by Carney that he is referring to:

“Opportunity created by affordable, quality health insurance allows families in America to make a decision about how they will work, or if they will work.”

“He says opportunity. This is what he’s heralding in this achievement, that the government is giving opportunity for people to decide if they want to work. This is the liberals’ ideal of the opportunity society,” Krauthammer said. “Of course, in a free society, you can decide if you want to work, but what Obamacare does, and so the essence of liberalism, is you can choose not to work, and the people who do work end up subsidizing you.”

In other words, he explained, the people who work “have to send their money to the government” so they can redistribute it to the people who choose, “in this ideal new opportunity society,” not to work.

◼ As Rich Lowry writes, “The Democrats once styled themselves the party of workers. Now, they are the party of people who would have been workers, if it hadn’t been for Obamacare.” That doesn’t bode well for them in November; and it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the nation if the situation continues.

The FBI’s beef is with the selection of Debo Adegbile as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. The FBI Agents Association’s opposition is based on the way in which Adegbile defended, and led the cheers for, cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

The problem isn’t that Adegbile defended Abu-Jamal. The problem, as Bill Otis explains, is that Adegbile led a street campaign to denounce the policeman Abu-Jamal killed, Officer Daniel Faulkner, and the police in general, as an occupying fascist army.

Accordingly the FBI Agents Association (FBIAA) has communicated its opposition to Adegbile’s nomination to Vice President Biden, Attorney General Holder, and the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Unfortunately, that Committee today approved the nomination 10-8 in a straight party line vote.

...Even as he admitted wrongdoing, (John Koskinen, the new commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service) awarded $62.5 million in bonuses to IRS employees. It looks like hush money. Whatever it is, it's not being sorry.

Granted, it’s not as if this is a new practice or solely the practice of Democratic administrations, not by a long shot. But I don’t recall seeing so many grossly ignorant nominees put their gross ignorance on display so readily.

Olivier Knox reported... on the hearing in which George Tsunis attempted to answer questions about his new assignment, and in doing so displayed a stunning ignorance of the political situation in the country that will host him as our highest-ranking representative. In fact, Tsunis couldn’t even name Norway’s form of government...

Indeed, the State Department under Obama is turning into a global laughingstock as he puts forward a series of incompetent political cronies for key diplomatic posts, showing disrespect for allies and contempt for our own nation's proud diplomatic traditions.

...Caroline Kennedy, who doesn't speak Japanese, has no real expertise in Japan and whose sole qualification appears to be her last name, is now U.S. representative to our No. 1 ally in Asia. Tokyo officials took it as a grave insult.

...Colleen Bradley Bell, another big-time Obama campaign bundler and TV soap opera producer ("The Bold and the Beautiful"), is our new ambassador to Hungary. During her hearings, Bell couldn't say what strategic interests, if any, the U.S. had in Hungary.

...In the gaffe department, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was quoted on the Internet as telling our ambassador to Ukraine, "F*** the EU." Predictably, the EU was outraged.

“Listen, there’s widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws. And it’s going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes,” the Ohio Republican told reporters at his weekly press conference....

Mr. Boehner and fellow Republicans said Mr. Obama’s credibility on the immigration issue has suffered both because of his previous moves to change policy and stop many deportations under existing laws, and because of the tone of his State of the Union address last month, when the president said he would take even more unilateral actions.

“The president’s asking us to move one of the biggest bills of his presidency, and yet he’s shown very little willingness to work with us on the smallest of things,” Mr. Boehner said. “You know, last week we sent a letter to the president outlining four bills that he talked about in the State of the Union that are sitting in the United States Senate, whether it’s the SKILLS Act, the research bill, a couple of other bills. The president could reach out and work with us on those and begin the process of rebuilding the trust between the American people and his presidency.”

The most extremist power any political leader can assert is the power to target his own citizens for execution without any charges or due process, far from any battlefield. The Obama administration has not only asserted exactly that power in theory, but has exercised it in practice. In September 2011, it killed US citizen Anwar Awlaki in a drone strike in Yemen, along with US citizen Samir Khan, and then, in circumstances that are still unexplained, two weeks later killed Awlaki's 16-year-old American son Abdulrahman with a separate drone strike in Yemen.

Since then, senior Obama officials including Attorney General Eric Holder and John Brennan, Obama's top terrorism adviser and his current nominee to lead the CIA, have explicitly argued that the president is and should be vested with this power. Meanwhile, a Washington Post article from October reported that the administration is formally institutionalizing this president's power to decide who dies under the Orwellian title "disposition matrix".

...What has made these actions all the more radical is the absolute secrecy with which Obama has draped all of this. Not only is the entire process carried out solely within the Executive branch - with no checks or oversight of any kind - but there is zero transparency and zero accountability. The president's underlings compile their proposed lists of who should be executed, and the president - at a charming weekly event dubbed by White House aides as "Terror Tuesday" - then chooses from "baseball cards" and decrees in total secrecy who should die. The power of accuser, prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner are all consolidated in this one man, and those powers are exercised in the dark.

In fact, The Most Transparent Administration Ever™ has been so fixated on secrecy that they have refused even to disclose the legal memoranda prepared by Obama lawyers setting forth their legal rationale for why the president has this power.

...The concept of cutting back on government expenditures was as foreign to the British as it is to our government today, which provides lip service but no meaningful action.
Why do so many members of the political class go to such great lengths to demonize the Tea Party?
It is not a sophisticated political organization, but rather consists of a loosely knit group of American citizens from many backgrounds who are not ready to relinquish the power of the people into the hands of government entities whose interests and values do not seem to coincide with theirs.
I think it is because certain politicians have forgotten that they work for us rather than the other way around. These politicians are deeply offended by anyone who would dare challenge their “wisdom” and authority....

Remember President Obama's claim during the Super Bowl Sunday interview with Bill O'Reilly that there is "not even a smidgen of corruption" going on with the IRS? Why, he explained, they were merely trying to fix how they deal with some confusing rules that caused bureaucratic mistakes.

Um, not even.

An investigation by the House Ways and Means Committee has uncovered memos that not only prove IRS officials knew exactly what they were doing in targeting conservative political groups, but prove there was coordination and direction from Obama's Treasury Department.

House committees are still digging into the IRS political targeting scandal, and based on a hearing Wednesday there's more to learn. The day produced more evidence blowing apart President Obama's claims that there was "not even a smidgen of corruption" or political motivation in the IRS handling of groups applying for tax-exempt status.

Mr. Obama wants Americans to believe that the targeting resulted from the confusing tax law governing nonprofits, which he says was "difficult" to interpret and resulted in mere "bureaucratic" mistakes. This is also the Administration's justification for issuing new regulations governing 501(c)(4)s that would effectively silence White House opponents this election year. Published in the Federal Register in November, the new rules cite the "lack of a clear and concise" regulation as reason for the rewrite.

House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp blew up this fairy tale at Wednesday's hearing with new IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. Mr. Camp unveiled a June 14, 2012 email from Treasury career attorney Ruth Madrigal to key IRS officials in the tax-exempt department, including former director Lois Lerner....

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. blasted President Obama for "pre-judging" the outcome of the IRS investigation for targeting Tea Party groups who applied for tax-exempt status.

Gowdy referred to Obama's assertion in a Fox News interview that there was “not even a smidgen of corruption” in the IRS case.

"...I understand why she invoked her Fifth Amendment privilege; I don't understand why in the hell the president of the United States would prejudge an investigation before any of your clients were interviewed," Gowdy said during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on Thursday while questioning American Center for Law and Justice lawyer Jay Sekulow, who represents Tea Party clients.

...Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, Gennifer Flowers, et al...These women -- most of whose claims were eventually admitted to by Bill Clinton -- were shamed and blamed. Was Hillary involved in these verbal attacks? To what degree was the famously hands-on wife of Bill involved -- or even worse -- leading the "nuts or sluts" strategy used to malign his accusers as either crazy or of questionable morals?

...Broaddrick claims that two weeks after the rape, at a political event, Hillary approached her. "She came over to me, took a hold of my hand and said, 'I've heard so much about you and I've been dying to meet you. ... I just want you to know how much that Bill and I appreciate what you do for him.' ...

"This woman, this little, soft-spoken — pardon me for the phrase — dowdy woman that would seem very unassertive, took ahold of my hand and squeezed it and said, 'Do you understand? Everything that you do.' I could have passed out at that moment and I got my hand from hers and I left. ... She was just holding onto my hand. Because I had started to turn away from her and she held onto my hand and she said, 'Do you understand? EVERYTHING that you do,' I mean, cold chills went up my spine. That's the first time I became afraid of that woman."

The new documentary Bankrupt: How Cronyism and Corruption Brought Down Detroit, from Mister Smith Media and FTR Media, explores the road to perdition American automobiles cruised down in their partnership with government. A story of the love the people had, and hope to have again, for this city of metaphors.

The full documentary, above, is available for free for a limited time. It’s a chance for us to find out not only what went wrong, but what can go wrong in the future. A cautionary tale of the age of Too Big To Fail.

When told the hospital did not take his insurance, Johnston was shocked. “It leaves me high and dry,” Johnston said. “I mean, this is nothing to fool around with. This is my life.”

The hospital said it currently does not accept any of the 8 plans offered by the New York state exchange, citing low reimbursement fees that “wouldn’t come close” to the cost of providing treatment. The hospital has had to negotiate on a case by case basis with the insurance companies to cover patients in predicaments like Johnston’s.

Obamacare enrollees hit snags at doctor's offices...
Subsidy Cliff: Earn $1 More in Wages, and You Could Pay $20,000 More for Insurance...
CBO Director: 'Creates a Disincentive for People to Work'...
Man says personal info stolen after using website...
'Anti-Obamacare' message pays off in campaign...
Cantor takes up replacement bill...
Iran pokes USA with 'Rouhanicare'...

“Today, the House of Representatives took measures to ensure that millions of Californians receive access to much needed water during the current drought crisis. By relaxing restrictive water regulations, this Act will increase access to vital water supplies which will save crops and jobs throughout California. I applaud the bill’s author, Rep. David Valadao (CA-21), Rep. Devin Nunes (CA-22), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (CA-23), and the entire California Republican delegation for their work on this crucial measure.”

The House approved the bill on a vote of 229 to 191, with Rep. Issa supporting passage.

"The first order of business is to get the government out of the way of our prosperity...It's about what's best for California. And I think we can unite a divided majority on American principles: hard work, personal responsibility, and freedom."

...A lot of cultural history is packed into that paragraph. Phyllis Kahn, 76 years old, has been in the Minnesota legislature for an astonishing 42 years. A political insider for her entire adult life, she lives in one of the notorious $1 homes on Nicollet Island that were given to prominent Democrats. Mohamud Noor is a Somali, one of many thousands who have thronged to Minnesota in recent years. Until recently a state employee, he was elected to the Minneapolis school board less than two months ago. He says his “campaign will be focused on equity issues.” Kahn, on the other hand, emphasizes her ability to bring home the bacon...

Minnesota Democrats attended their local precinct caucuses last night. At the Brian Coyle Center in Minneapolis a fight broke out among Democrats in search of peace and love. Backers of newly elected school board member Mohammud Noor apparently sought to unseat 21-term incumbent state Rep. Phyllis Kahn. Noor also serves as the interim executive director of the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota, “helping to connect new immigrants with social welfare programs, housing, health care and education services.”

The act is sponsored by Representative Bob Latta (R-Ohio) under the auspices of H.R. 3590. Its purpose is "to promote enjoyment of shooting, recreational, and hunting activities," which it does by "[providing] increased Federal support to facilitate the expansion of public target ranges" and opening more federally managed land to hunting.

In the last few years Judicial Watch has reported extensively on the fraud and corruption surrounding food stamps, which are administered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Food stamp rolls have grown immensely under Obama and the government spends an astounding $80.4 billion a year on the program to meet the president’s goal of eradicating “food insecure households.”

...There’s no doubt the USDA will spend more taxpayer dollars to appeal so it’s unlikely that the agency will make the information available anytime in the near future. In the meantime the agency responded to the federal appellate court spanking with an all too familiar “no comment.” In an e-mail to the Argus Leader the president of the Association of Health Care Journalists, also the health and science editor at a mainstream newspaper, calls SNAP a government black hole. “The secrecy involving food stamps is in a class by itself, exceeding that of any federal safety-net program.”

And as the Wall Street Journal observes, this CBO report is really soft-pedaling job losses from ObamaCare, because they didn’t model the job-killing power of the employer mandate at all. That’s right, Obama drones: you spent all night pushing idiotic White House spin about how the CBO didn’t say ObamaCare would cause anyone to actually get fired, but your masters didn’t tell you that’s because the report specifically avoided the subject

...We find ourselves forced into an ugly debate about the nature of freedom. Liberals, as explicitly stated by Carney, think work erodes freedom – you’re not really free unless you can say “the hell with it” and do whatever you want, fed, clothed, and medicated by the maternal State. To modify the old folk song, freedom’s just another word for nothing left to do.

But conservatives believe work is the essence of freedom....

Every other form of liberty tends to erode when work diminishes, a point Barack Obama’s tenure demonstrates with such clarity that I suspect future generations will study it in textbooks.

During a press conference on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary called ‘freedom’ a “buzzword.” He was discussing Obamacare’s effect in lessening work hours because it lowers the hourly threshold an American must work in order to obtain health care.

Sometimes you can disagree with spin from this White House while still admiring its political craftsmanship. Yesterday was not one of those days. Rocked on their heels by a CBO analysis of ObamaCare that’s going to spark full-blown panic among Democrats up for re-election in 2014, White House spokesman Jay Carney ran a spin session that involved claiming unemployment is the essence of freedom – it’s great that people can quit their jobs because ObamaCare will subsidize their health insurance at everyone else’s expense, because they’ll have more time to work on their cowboy poetry or whatever.

Keep that in mind when you’re looking at your gigantic ObamaCare premiums and deductibles, young and healthy suckers. You’re paying three times what you used to pay so that older people who really don’t want to work can feel more free to quit their jobs....

Carney topped off his disastrous press conference by claiming that “freedom” is just a “buzzword,” a line that’s going to show up on T-shirts for years to come. Way to make the entire United States recoil in disgust from your Administration, dude.

We find ourselves forced into an ugly debate about the nature of freedom. Liberals, as explicitly stated by Carney, think work erodes freedom – you’re not really free unless you can say “the hell with it” and do whatever you want, fed, clothed, and medicated by the maternal State. To modify the old folk song, freedom’s just another word for nothing left to do.

...The same law Obama is praising because it will reduce the workforce by making work unnecessary for 2.5 million people is also forcing elderly nuns to pay for contraceptives. When you’re dependent on the State for your livelihood, even your ability to vote becomes a largely theoretical “freedom.” They know which way you’re going to vote. You can’t afford to make any other choice.

When we expect everyone to seek employment, we are showing respect to our fellow citizens. Obama’s attitude is outrageous in its contempt for the American people. He really does think the American dream is a reasonably comfortable dead-end existence, with the working population obliged to cover the bills of the indolent.

"The administration is playing with fire," said former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin. "They sold this as 'only rich people pay, and everyone benefits,' and now we're finding out it's not true."

There are 7.8 million Americans working part-time who want full-time work, including a fry cook whose restaurant cut his hours to avoid Affordable Care Act mandates and confronted President Obama in an online Google Q&A last week: "We can´t survive. It´s not a living." Mr. Obama changed the subject to raising the minimum wage. But he can´t dodge reality forever as the evidence piles up that ObamaCare is harming the labor market.

On Tuesday no less than the Congressional Budget Office reported that the health law is causing Americans to work less or not at all, in a remarkable intellectual turnabout for the budget shop that Democrats cited repeatedly when selling ObamaCare. Now CBO—full of liberal-leaning economists—says the economy will lose the equivalent of two million full-time workers by 2017 and 2.5 million over the next decade, a threefold increase over its prior estimate....

"...Claims that the Affordable Care Act hurts jobs are simply belied by the facts in the CBO report," the White House declared Tuesday. By "facts," the White House seems to mean that the report is positive because "individuals will be empowered to make choices about their own lives and livelihoods" and "have the opportunity to pursue their dreams." There you have it: the new American dream of not working.

All of this is one more contradiction of the arguments that were used to sell ObamaCare. The law would reduce health-care costs and shrink the deficit, you could keep your health plan and your doctor, and businesses could hire more workers and be more competitive. All of this is turning out to be false, and now we learn that the law is a job destroyer that is

Not only will ObamaCare not create 4 million jobs, the Congressional Budget Office now says it will cut the number of hours worked 2% by 2024 — which is the equivalent of losing 2.5 million full-time jobs.

A big reason, according to the CBO, stems from the income-based subsidies meant to lower premium costs. When combined with other features of the tax code, these subsidies end up creating an effective marginal tax rate of nearly 50% for some lower middle-class families.

That is, every extra dollar these families earn will cost them about 50 cents in lost tax credits and ObamaCare subsidies, "thus discouraging work." To liberals, this is no big deal, since workers will be "choosing" to work less. "Means-tested programs always reduce employment," writes Kevin Drum in Mother Jones.

Davis, who has been in the Texas Senate since 2008, is from the Fort Worth area and required amenities to live in Austin while she was serving in the Senate. The apartments and suites she chose to live in between 2008 and 2014 took from the campaign fund monthly rents comparable to apartments in central Manhattan, as well as use of services like maids. Rents increased over time as Davis upgraded from a $2,000-a-month suite at the Monarch in 2008 to an apartment costing her campaign more than $3,000 a month by 2011, at which time Davis moved to an apartment at the Ashton in Austin.

Despite her significant salary as an attorney, which the Free Beacon estimates as just over $275,000 in 2012, Davis did not pay for any of her accommodations or the maid service at the Monarch. All expenses were paid by her campaign--from donations and assorted funds meant to keep her in office.

The Beacon posits that such a life of luxury directly contradicts the image that Davis is trying to sell Texans in her gubernatorial campaign.

...Under current enrollment policies, victims who have left abusive relationships, even if they file taxes separately from a spouse, still are judged on total household income of the marriage. So if a victim flees and is trying to obtain health insurance coverage, she or he may actually be scraping by on a substantially smaller income yet not qualify for subsidies — and be mandated to buy a costly policy.

And a high healthcare premium would exacerbate what is already a trepidatious financial situation, with many victims coming from a marriage where the abusive spouse controlled the money and many of the abused eventually returning to the marriage because of an inability to financially support oneself and any children.

Rarely has a lame duck emitted such a strange series of quacks, as President Obama sat down for a pre-Super Bowl interview with Bill O’Reilly in which the latter asked the kind of tough questions Obama’s adoring media never asks… and Obama refused to answer any of them.

I’m done, guys. If we’ve reached the stage of welfare-state decadence where it’s a selling point for a new entitlement that it discourages able-bodied people from working, there’s no reason to keep going. We’ve lost, decisively.

"The GOP really has become the Great Opportunity Party," Scott told NBC's David Gregory on "Meet the Press" in an interview Sunday....

He also said the GOP's multiple responses to President Obama's State of the Union address were a sign of strength, not weakness.

"The reason why the party continues to grow is because we like the diversity of ideas, and when we've had that diversity of ideas, it helps us to build the best party for the future," he said. "At the end of the day, what America needs is a party that is as diverse as the Republican Party — that is why the great opportunity for our future comes out of the GOP."

U.S. intelligence agencies last week urged the Obama administration to check its new healthcare network for malicious software after learning that developers linked to the Belarus government helped produce the website, raising fresh concerns that private data posted by millions of Americans will be compromised.

The intelligence agencies notified the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency in charge of the Healthcare.gov network, about their concerns last week. Specifically, officials warned that programmers in Belarus, a former Soviet republic closely allied with Russia, were suspected of inserting malicious code that could be used for cyber attacks, according to U.S. officials familiar with the concerns....

Officials disclosed the software compromise last week after the discovery in early January of statements by Belarusian official Valery Tsepkalo, director of the government-backed High-Technology Park (HTP) in Minsk.

Tsepkalo told a Russian radio station in an interview broadcast last summer that HHS is “one of our clients,” and that “we are helping Obama complete his insurance reform.”

“Our programmers wrote the program that appears on the monitors in all hospitals and all insurance companies—they will see the full profile of the given patient,” Tsepkalo said June 25 on Voice of Russia Radio.

White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said an intelligence report on the Belarusian software was “recalled by the intelligence community shortly after it was issued.”

...House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich) said he was surprised by media reports from Belarus indicating “some parts of Healthcare.gov or systems connected to it may have in fact been written overseas.” He called for an independent security review of the Obamacare website.

Rogers said he was especially concerned by the potential software vulnerability because a CGI executive, Vice President Cheryl Campbell, testified to Congress that all software work for the network had been done in the United States.

“We need an independent, thorough security evaluation of this site, and we need the commitment from the administration that the findings will be acknowledged and promptly addressed,” Rogers told the Free Beacon.

“I continue to call on HHS to shut down and properly stress test the site to ensure that consumers are protected from potential security risks from across the globe.”

...According to HHS, between Oct. 1 and the end of the year, 1. 9 million people signed up for healthcare through the federal website. Another 956,000 enrolled through state websites. More than 55 million people visited both the federal and state websites.

The threat of data diversion is compounded by the discovery last year that Belarus covertly diverted massive amounts of U.S. Internet traffic to Belarus.

According to the New Hampshire-based security firm Renesys, which discovered the data diversion, throughout February 2013, Internet traffic from the United States was sent to Belarus. The purpose likely was to allow hackers or government agencies to sift for data for financial, economic, or government intelligence.

Most see President Obama’s executive decision to delay the employer mandate in Obamacare as a gift to big business. Likely so, but it is also a massive, stealthy tax increase on individuals.

There are two major reasons why individually owned health insurance is much more expensive than employer-provided plans. First, premiums are generally less in group plans. There is a larger group to share the risk, and employed individuals are likely to be healthier.

Second and probably more important, employer-provided insurance is purchased with pre-tax dollars. Your health benefit is not subject to either payroll or income taxes. If you buy insurance yourself, though, it is with after-tax dollars. Depending on your tax bracket, this could double the effective cost.

If you lose your employment benefit and have to go to the individual market, your premium will probably increase — and you will have to earn about twice the value of the premium in order to pay it once Social Security, Medicare, federal income taxes, and state and local taxes extract their share.

The news is quite evidently nothing to celebrate, and the capitulation by the U.S. State Department and the European Union towards Hassan Rouhani and his country's nuclear ambitions is already heralding a new era of Iranian fortitude.

...Just a few days ago, the Iranian-Arab poet Hashem Shaabani and the human rights activist Hadi Rashedi were executed for "enmity against God".

These hangings were ordered by Rouhani, who may be targeting the Arab-speaking Ahwazi population in the southwest of Iran. Regional expert Benjamin Weinthal has written that Rouhani is presiding over an "execution spree", and United Nations experts have reported that "at least 40 persons have been reportedly hanged in the first two weeks of January".

So the Iranian regime is now set to receive previously untouchable funds, bolstering its previously precarious economic situation. The Iranian military flexes the muscles it wants us to believe it has. And all the while, hundreds of anti-regime activists and minorities are being mercilessly targeted and executed.

“They can definitely change these up or put their own spin on these,” Lierman said in the email, obtained by the Washington Free Beacon on Monday.

Many, though, did not significantly change the suggested language. Ayanbadejo sent three tweets, all of which copied Lierman’s suggested language with the exception of the typo in the last tweet.

The Ravens received a $130,000 contract from Maryland Health Connection, the state’s Obamacare exchange, last year to promote Obamacare. The NFL decided to forego an agreement with officials in charge of the Obamacare rollout.

...(Brendon Ayanbadejo's) third effort received a White House retweet, pursuant to assurances in Lierman’s email.

“When folks tweet this out if they or you email me with their handle I can flag it for the @whitehouse and our other twitter handles to be retweeted, etc.,” he (Lierman) wrote.

In a pre-Super Bowl interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, Obama was pressed on why he had kept Sebelius in his Cabinet after the health law's new insurance exchanges launched with massive technical issues.

“My main priority right now is making sure that it [Obamacare] delivers for the American people,” said Obama.

◼ The Humboldt County Elections Office does a great job providing needed information for both voters and candidates. From the election calendar, listing of qualifications and salary info, Signage and Mailing guidelines, it's designed to make things user-friendly.

As you can see we have a pretty full slate this election season. Four candidates have already announced that they're running to replace outgoing District Attorney Paul Gallegos; Fourth District Supervisor Virginia bass and Fifth District Supervisor Ryan Sundberg have announced that they are running for re-election.

◼ Election Calendar [pdf]Feb 10 – Mar 7Candidate Filing Period, All Offices
Between these dates, persons wanting to run for any office on the ballot, including incumbents running for re-election, must file declaration of candidacy documents. For offices in Humboldt County, forms are available from and must be filed with the Humboldt County Office of Elections, 3033 H Street, Rm 20, Eureka.Mar 8 – Mar 12Candidacy Filing Extension for anyone other than the incumbent to file a declaration of candidacy and nomination petition if the incumbent did not file by March 7.

Every way you turned in Atlanta on Tuesday night, the examples of kindness and character were heartwarming.

On an icy hill on Peachtree Battle Road, for example, a young man stood guard, pushing sliding vehicles back on track.

On West Wesley Road, as traffic inched forward, a family stood, bundled up, outside their home to offer passing motorists homemade chocolate chip cookies. Neighbors of 1-75 and I-285 came out to serve hot cocoa and snacks to stranded motorists.

At the state Capitol, legislators offered their couches to stranded visitors; at schools, principals and teachers stayed late or overnight.

At the Fairfield Inn in Alpharetta, cheerful staff fed all comers, including people camping in the lobby because no rooms were available.

On the interstates, as cars crawled around trapped tractor-trailers and abandoned autos, drivers got out, unprompted, to help push sliding vehicles forward – and not just those in their lane. No horns honked.

Social media played a huge role. On Facebook and Twitter, people and business owners offered homes, offices, rides, food and information, reaching out to complete strangers.

Chick-fil-A fed folks; Home Depot stores stayed open overnight to shelter the stranded; in Publix, Kroger, CVS and Walgreens stores, people dozed in the aisles....

What was the common thread? Individual responsibility and personal initiative. People acted without prompting from government.

They didn’t wait to be told to help. They saw a need, they filled it. They were charitable in the truest sense of the word.

Welcome

I would like to introduce myself. I am John Schutt the new chairman of the Humboldt County Republican Central Committee. I'd like to ask each one of you to send me your thoughts and ideas on making Humboldt great again. I also am asking for your help, need republicans for open spots on the central committee, committee seats, letters to the editor writers, and many other opportunities. The 2018 election for governor and other seats is just around the corner and we will need all your help. Please feel free to call the office (442-2259) or leave a message here (or on Facebook) and I will get back to you as soon as possible.